I’ve returned from attending the MidWest Acquirers Association's 11th Annual Conference this week in Chicago. It was a good trip and I had the chance to visit with many of our ISOs and payment services partners. It’s apparent that the payment processing industry is heating up again. (Or maybe it was the 90 degree weather?) Mobile payments solutions were hot, of course, but I also received a lot of attention on our new MED-RDC service. A remote deposit capture service just for medical businesses, you ask? Well, yes, and we’re very excited about it.

Medical practices are accustomed to receiving two types of check payments: patient self-pay checks and insurance checks. Patient check payments are not always a "sure thing" when you go to make the deposit. Insurance check payments are as good as gold, so there is less of a need for check guarantee to ensure you will get paid by the insurance company.

Enter MED-RDC: Medical Check Processing with and without guarantee. Medical practices can choose guarantee for patient payments and processing only for insurance checks. Either way, they’ll save time with remote deposit, eliminating drives to the bank for check deposits. Plus, MED-RDC also includes Future Deposit/Multiple Check and Stop Payment services.

This type of payment program is becoming more and more important as patients are having to cover a larger percentage of their medical bills. According to a recent study, costs for healthcare for a family of four exceed $22,000 per year with a large percentage being paid directly by the patient. Take a look at the figure below from the 2013 Milliman Medical Index. It shows that patient payments are at their highest annual levels ever and that patients are responsible for over $9000, even when covered by an employer-sponsored health plan.

I enjoyed my time in Chicago (except for the previously mentioned 90 degree weather) and the opportunity to introduce this new payment solution. Also, it was great to see Biff Matthews of Cardware International receive the MWAA Lifetime Achievement award. Past winners of this honor have been Paul Green, Bob Carr and Linda Perry, so Biff is in good company.

If you’d like more information on MED-RDC, please download the guide or get in touch with me. If you have comments or an experience to share on serving the medical industry, I hope you’ll let me know in the box below.